A slice of comfort: Roasted pumpkin stuffed with wild mushrooms and gruyere 

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A slice of comfort: Roasted pumpkin stuffed with wild mushrooms and gruyere

By Danielle Alvarez

Published: | Updated:

SERVES 6-8

20g butter

2 onions, thinly sliced

200g wild mushrooms, such as chanterelle and porcini, cleaned and sliced

50ml white wine

6 thyme sprigs, leaves picked and roughly chopped

170g stale bread, sliced

1.8kg pumpkin

100ml cream

100ml mushroom, vegetable or chicken stock

60g grated gruyère

cayenne pepper, for sprinkling

1 tbsp grated parmesan

olive oil, for rubbing

  • Heat the butter in a sauté pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook gently and slowly until they are well on their way to being caramelised. This takes 15-20 minutes.
  • Next, add the mushrooms and wine with another pinch of salt and sauté for 5-7 minutes until the mushrooms release their juices, are cooked and the liquid has reduced to almost dry. Add the thyme and, finally, check for seasoning before setting aside.
  • Toast your bread until lightly golden in colour. Set aside.
  • Cut around the stem to make a hole in the top of your pumpkin roughly the same size as the palm of your hand. Pull the top off gently, then scrape out the seeds and pulp on the inside and discard. Season the inside of the pumpkin with salt and pepper.
  • Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7.
  • Combine the cream and stock in a saucepan and heat until just below simmering point. Layer the mushroom and onion mixture, bread, cheese, cream and stock into the pumpkin. I like to add a little salt and pepper and a tiny sprinkling of cayenne pepper.
  • Repeat until all ingredients have been used and the pumpkin is filled generously. You don’t want it exploding though; if it doesn’t all fit, you’ll have a little excess filling.
  • Finish with the parmesan and replace the pumpkin top. Rub the outside of the pumpkin with olive oil and roast it on a tray, uncovered, for 2-3 hours or until the outside is darkened, tender and you see the cream mixture on the inside simmering out of the top. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so before serving.
  • Serve by removing the top and scooping a spoonful of the inside (including some pumpkin) on to plates.